Just In: New estimate statuses to better track potential business

Last week’s flavor was saving time with bulk printing. This week we are planning to get you more organized with regard to your potential business.

The average life of an estimate undergoes several trials and testing phases before it reaches the ‘invoiced’ stage. Along with Draft, Sent and Invoiced, we’ve now introduced three new estimate statuses in Zoho Books and Zoho Invoice – Accepted, Declined and Expired.

When a client approves the proposal, you can mark the estimate as ‘accepted’. All the accepted estimates will give you an idea on how to prioritize and plan your time so you can manage multiple projects comfortably.

Declined estimates could be a due to a lot of reasons even including the low budget. But if you have a trail of declined estimates for specific customers, analysis of that will give you insight on how to change your modus operandi the next time.

As a freelancer or small business owner you cannot have clients hanging onto your estimates forever. An expiry date acts as a catalyst for an earlier discussion and merry times ahead.

Classifying estimates helps to track them better and it gives a better idea of the potential business coming your way.

Now, with an approved estimate in hand, the next thing you would want is to create an invoice. Wouldn’t it be awesome if the software already took care of that!

Just head over to the ‘Settings‘ tab and select the option ‘Yes‘ to convert an estimate to invoice as soon as it is approved. Once the project is complete, head to the Invoice list and there you’ll find the ‘new invoice‘ in the draft status waiting for your next move.

Read more about estimate statuses in our help documentation. Hope you like it. Check it out and do share your feedback right here.